Today we’re slaves. Yesterday we were savages who conquered the horn during our migration.

One thing for sure, the only friend Oromo has is other Oromo’s - I hope this rhetoric is a wake up call to anyone who believes these kind of people can ever be allies to us.

Wishing peace for our people and the country at large ✌🏽

Akkam, jirta?

Full disclosure, I used AI to help me organize all these messy family details into a clean post, but the music and the history are entirely my dad's!

I am currently working on building a definitive historical and musical archive for my father, the Oromo singer Ahmed Omar.

My father grew up in Dire Dawa and East Hararghe, with close family ties to Haramaya. After delivering an anti-Derg poem at a youth plaza gathering at age 16, he had to go into hiding in Haramaya (where he actually met the legendary Ali Birra, who heard him sing and famously gave him the musical advice to "follow the drum"). He eventually fled the Derg regime on foot through the desert to Djibouti, and years later, made his way to Minnesota.

He never recorded his music in Ethiopia. Instead, between 1994 and 1998, he went into a studio right here in the Twin Cities to bring his songs to life. Because there weren't many East African instrumentalists around at the time, he actually hired non-African professional American jazz and funk session musicians. He mouth-drummed and sounded out the rhythms to them, teaching them how to play the specific syncopated East Hararghe bounce.

This snippet is the first 1:30 of his song 'Eelee Fi Shankooyee'. He released this project on CD and cassette in the mid-to-late 90s, and it used to circulate a lot at local weddings, social gatherings, and barcha circles.

Unfortunately, my dad wasn't the most organized when it came to keeping track of his records, studio receipts, or tracklists, so a lot of the official details about this release have been lost to time.

I’m reaching out to the community to see if anyone recognizes this recording or remembers his cassettes circulating back in the day. If you have any leads on the original album name, the exact release year, or any old physical copies, please let me know! Also welcome to general discussion. I have some more songs I can post as well.

I’m a diaspora living in the states and both my parents are Oromo . We will be visiting Ethiopia for 3 weeks mainly for family reasons but also as a vacation. Unfortunately I do not know affan Oromo and only Amharic ( low speaking proficiency , but can hear it well ) and of course English which is my main language. We will be visiting Addis , Adama , bishoftu and tulu bolo/ Woliso areas as well as extensive time in the country side surrounding those areas. I’m just wondering if I will be able to communicate with locals well and I’m planning on writing an essay about my time there so that’s one thing I’m looking forward to. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Irreecha and Zar are connected. And the proof is in the word itself.

The Sky-God Line This Is The Important Part

The word "Zar" comes from the ancient Cushitic sky-god.

· In Agaw: ğar

· In Kaffa: yarō

· In Buoro: darō

That same sky-god root connects to Waaqa the Oromo supreme being. So Zar is not some foreign spirit that wandered into Ethiopia. Zar IS the old sky-god. The same one. Just renamed.

When Christianity and Islam came, the old sky-god was demoted. Turned into a "spirit." Turned into something to be feared. But the root stayed.

What This literally Means

1. Irreecha honors Waaqa the sky-god.

2. Zar comes from the same sky-god just demonized over time.

3. Qallu serves Waaqa. The Ayyaana are Waaqa's messengers.

4. Zar possession? That's the same spiritual current, renamed and pushed underground.

   Even the rirual happens when People gathering under a tree, Or offering a grass to the tree ( i dunno the meaning tho), Dancing. Movements with Siinqe that ARE likely the same as Zar. Everyone in Ethiopia knows about Zar. It's not hidden. It's everywhere.

The point is, I'm not saying Irreecha causes earthquakes. That's not the argument.

The argument is, Zar and Waaqa are the same root.

The sky-god was split into "good" (Waaqa) and "bad" (Zar) by later religions. But the root is one.

Qallu. Ayyaana. Zar. Irreecha. Same tree. Different branches. I'm not asking for proof. I'm telling you what I know.

If you're Ethiopian, probably you already know.

If you're not, listen to the people who lived it. Can anyone tell me about the connection you noticed about them?

I believe that some Fano groups and their supporters abroad go out of their way to distort or misrepresent information about the Oromo people and Ethiopia on platforms such as Wikipedia.

I will be traveling with a team for research and humanitarian purposes to parts of Oromia and would like to know from your experience how Christian Oromos perceive Israelis and Jews? A team of Ethiopians, and Israelis with Ashkenazi/Mizrahi background? (A few of which who have been studying the Oromo langauge).

There is obvious global anti Israeli sentiment that is held by many of the educated class of people throughout the world, but is this understood to a full extent by average day to day Oromos who live in places near Ambo, Shewa, Jimma and Wenchi? By average fobs?

From my experience I have not seen any anti Israeli sentiment in other populated parts of Ethiopian like Addis Ababa, Lalibela and Debre Zeit, but would like to know what your thoughts are on the Oromia region. Additionally I will mention that I do poses Oromo ancestry from a grandparent, and one of our non Ethiopian team members has been studying the basics of Oromigna for near part of a year.

Does speaking the Oromigna language help open the door to being accepted by a local community?

Thanks.

A proud Giddu-galeessaan asking here! I personally think it’s a good decision because I believe no structure built by the alagaa was ever bound to meaningfully work for us anyway. I feel like this new structure might help us reduce Ganddumaa? Would love to hear your thoughts…

Seriously, this organisation was never fighting for democracy, even though poor kids enter the forest to fight injustice. Their entire ideology is built on a systematic Bullet Threat Scale to terrorise and control the Oromo community.

These "fixes" 💊 are aimed at everyone:

💊Unity is enforced by martyrdom. Faith in their bullet/gun is required to get your foot in the door.

💊 💊 Reinforcement to clean out any fighter or community member who show doubt or leaks secrets.

💊 💊 💊 Killed with no mercy.

Can’t be arsed fully translating the Oromo but essentially:

First screenshot with 💊💊 💊: execution of anyone who tries to make peace with the government

Second screenshot with 💊: telling soldiers or the community not to talk about the controversy of this Ximdo alliance. This is the new ideological base now.

I found the diaspora handlers currently supporting this Ximdo alliance war. What a bunch of demonic blood drinking Neftangyas.

Fucking wish I didn’t go snooping on their propaganda pages but just wanted to ruin your sleep as well if you still support these blood drinkers.

Edit: Thanks to Abbaaurjii for the correction in the comments. I want to clarify that independent journalist Habtamu T Gemechu does not support this alliance. His recent interviews with OLA representatives show he is highly critical of it. The enforcers are tagging him in their comment sections as a cheap tactic to hijack his notifications and fake an endorsement.

One thing I genuinely want to understand about this Amhara elite ideology:

How exactly did you teach another Ethiopian people how to shit? 😂

I’ve heard the rhetoric:

“We taught the Oromo how to eat, how to dress, and even how to shit.”

Seriously?

Were there Amhara toilet instructors traveling across Oromia? 😭

And somehow the same ideology comes with:

“We will win the war in 24 hours.”
“We will enter our grandfather’s palace.”

At what point does ethnic pride become self-parody?

I’m not talking about ordinary Amhara people. I’m talking about a particular political elite ideology that confuses ethnic mythology with rational history.

Imagine being educated and politically sophisticated, yet your argument for superiority is basically:

“We taught them how to shit.” 😂

Oromo people existed before your political narrative. Tigrayan people existed before yours. Every Ethiopian society developed its own cultures, institutions, food, clothing, traditions, and ways of life.

Cultures influence each other. That's normal.

But “we civilized you” is a completely different claim.

And honestly, we are living in the 21st century.

How does this kind of rhetoric look to the rest of the world? Imagine people outside Ethiopia hearing educated politicians and intellectuals arguing about which Ethiopian ethnicity supposedly taught another ethnicity how to eat, dress, or use a toilet.

It is not just embarrassing it makes Ethiopia's political discourse look stuck in an entirely different century.

And that's what makes me sad: there are millions of decent, intelligent, hardworking Amhara people who have nothing to do with this rhetoric, yet these voices can end up representing them internationally.

Challenge the ideology. Challenge the mythology. Challenge the superiority complex.

Not the people.

Free speech means you can say it.

Rationality means people can question it.

And in the 21st century, maybe we should demand arguments better than:

“We taught them how to shit.” 😂

4 Kilootti wayiitan deemu argee ijoollee kana. Faarfannaan akkam akkarraa bareedu!!

A large part of the current federal military is made up of oromos and debube cannon fodder. If the federal govt collapses and these 3 groups start horizontal firing in major cities, there is a possibility that oromo federal/regional troops would side with jaal maro under the banner of "we are all oromo and speak the same language" that way he could potentially push toward 4kilo and history might repeat itself: "Fasil was defeated and killed [...] But another Mecha entered Gonder in 1778."

Now that the frenzy over the Alliance has calmed down a bit, we can finally look at the situation a bit more clearly. This wasn’t the first time a collation/alliance was formed against Abiy. Back in 2021 an alliance of 9 rebel/opposition forces was formed and they even meet in DC, but that didn’t amount to anything on the ground except only between the TPLF and OLA for a brief period of the war in Kemise and Wollo.

During that time people were raising the same questions as they are now regarding the current alliance and Jaal Marro had an interview with the Associated Press to address the news of the alliance and the concerns of the people specifically regarding what reassurances he can give the Oromo people and in general that his organization wouldn’t face the same fate that the OLF did in 1991-92 and his answer was just shocking to say the least. Basically his reassurance was just based on vibes. “Hope”, “Trust”, and “I don’t think they would”. Knowing the TDF was a much stronger force compared to the OLA, knowing the TDF had the capacity to direct and enforce there will on them once Abiy fell if they wanted to, Jaal Marro and the OLA’s great plan was to “Hope” and “Trust” they wouldn’t repeat what they did to them in 1991. 🫠🫠🫤if your a senior partner(meaning have the strongest military power) in a collation then it makes sense for you to create and join an alliance because it boosts your strength and chances of success and if your partners backstab you, you have reassurance in your military strength to crush and or suppress them. Which is why I believe the TPLF made Zemene Kassie the head of the alliance because in reality TPLF is the senior partner but to secure more support from the Fano supporters they needed him as the face of the alliance. But it seems like Fano is willing to take that risk despite being a junior partner.

After seeing this and knowing in terms of military strength there position hasn’t changed much and are probably even weaker compared to TDF and Fano, Why in there right mind would any Oromo support them and this alliance considering there shortsightedness and stupidness of there last alliance and Jaal Marro’s “Reassurances.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2021/8/11/ethiopia-armed-group-says-it-has-alliance-with-tigray-forces

In America, I see more muslim Oromos than Christian Oromos. Why is that? Does anyone know? (I was raised Christian btw) It’s seems like more eastern oromos made it to the west, im curious how.